Montana A Paper Trail
by Thomas E. Minckler
foreword by Dr. Brian W. Dippie
published by Montana Historical Society Press
- Montana's History In Passionately Collected Photographs, Stories, and Documents
Montana: A Paper Trail is a story of two journeys. Thomas Minckler has spent a half century on a personal journey to collect nineteenth- and early twentieth-century letters and documents, vintage photographs, rare books, paintings and sketches, and territorial imprints on Montana and the northern Plains. Years of collecting and research on these items has uncovered valuable insights on previously unknown aspects of Montana history. Every artifact in the collection has a unique paper trail, a journey that reveals the colorful and fascinating story of Montana. Highlights to be found in Montana: A Paper Trail include:
* The largest archive of letters and photographs of Granville Stuart and Teddy Blue Abbot in private hands and perhaps the most important archive in any library in the country.
* Charlie Russell drawings from the Granville Stuart and Teddy Blue Abbott Collection.
* Thomas Francis Meagher’s 1865 letter after he received the appointment by President Andrew Johnson to be secretary of Montana Territory which turned into an acting Governor immediately.
456 pages, 10, index
hardcover
ISBN 10:
ISBN 13: 978-0-91729-821-9
$85.00
RELEASE DATE
12/15/2022
- * Color and Black & White photographs throughout
* Hardcover with dust jacket
* Bibliography
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| Thomas Minckler grew up in Great Falls, Montana. From his earliest days of being allowed to bicycle alone he was a passionate antiquarian, collecting old coins, fossils, arrowheads, and many other items of historical interest to his young mind. When he finished his undergraduate studies at the University of Montana in Missoula, he moved to San Francisco, where he was employed for a time at a business selling historical artifacts. He later moved to Montana to open an art and book gallery in both Missoula, MT and Billings, MT, where he continued his trade of acquiring and selling historical items procured from around the country. He now lives in Montana, where he continues collecting and sharing the fascinating history of Montana in his antiques. | |
Noted historian Dr. Brian W. Dippie wrote, "In this sumptuous book, Tom lays his treasures out before our eyes, and provides the context necessary to understand the claim each holds on his attention. When I look at what he has packed in his treasure chest, I find my vision tinged with green. Montana is known as The Treasure State for good reason. Gold coursed through its early history and gold dust still clings to the treasures in Tom’s collection. Appropriately, his record of his adventures on Montana’s paper trail is ambitious in scope and full of rewards for those who would accompany him on his journey.”
Diana Di Stefano, editor of the Montana Historical Society Press said it’s an amazing book. “Rarely does a private collection of this caliber become accessible to the public; even rarer is to have the objects so skillfully and enjoyably explained, as Minckler does in Montana: A Paper Trail.”
Veteran Western Americana specialist Nathaniel Des Marais wrote of the 10,000-plus items: “Make no mistake, this is the finest gathering of Montana source material ever brought together.”